or a dream of a dream
by Sara47Q
Summary: Had he dreamed it all? Had he actually been alone all this time? 11th and probably final part of the Crazy is the New Normal 'verse. Tony/Steve/Darcy


"Uncle Tony!" Jamie came running up to him in the hall and hugged his legs. Tony barely had the chance to process being called Uncle Tony by his son when he rushed on with, "Are you here for dinner? Mama's makin' pasketti and Daddy's setting the table."

Tony was starting to realize that something was NOT RIGHT. For one thing, he was being called Uncle and not Daddy. And for another, Jamie never mispronounced words or used baby talk. Maggie would never allow it.

"Where's Maggie, squirt?"

Jamie looked confused. "Who's Maggie? Is she 'nother 'Venger?" Tony felt his blood run cold.  
He took Jamie's hand and said, "I think I need to talk to your Mama and Daddy. Why don't you lead the way?"

Instead of going up to the Penthouse, Jamie led him down the hall to Steve's old apartment. It was no longer sparcely furnished, and Tony could see Darcy's touches in the eclectic art and bold colors.

"Mama!" Jamie let go of his hand and ran into the kitchen. "I brought Uncle Tony for dinner!" She turned around and smiled, and he could plainly see that she was pregnant. Something was really wrong.

He heard Steve come in behind him saying, "Hey, Tony. Nice to see you've finally left your workshop," before going over and picking up Jamie. He kissed Darcy, laying a hand on her belly and saying, "How're my girls?"

Tony was really starting to panic. "What about Maggie?"  
Steve looked over. "For a name? I like it."

"No. Maggie. Our daughter?" They were starting to look at him like he was crazy.

"Our daughter?" Steve asked hesitantly, as he put Jamie back down. "Hey, buddy, why don't you go wash your hands while we talk to Uncle Tony."

"OK!"

After Jamie left the room, Tony said, "Yes, our daughter. Maggie. Yours, mine, and Darcy's."

Darcy came over and put the back of her hand first on his forehead and then on his neck. "Tony, are you ok?"

"No, I'm not ok! I go to work for a few hours in my workshop and come out and the whole world is different! Maggie is gone and no one remembers her!" He ran a finger over the spot where his ring usually rested on his left hand and looked at Darcy and Steve's hands. They had rings but they no longer matched his.

"Something is really wrong."

Just then, Jamie came back in. "Dinnertime?"

Watching their family dinner was very disturbing, and not just because Darcy had actually cooked and it didn't involve bacon. Jamie was usually very precise, copying his idolized older sister and now he was making a huge mess that at one point had involved rubbing his garlic bread in his hair. He missed hearing Maggie talk about her day, sharing whatever new thing she had learned or built.

After dinner, Steve went to give Jamie his bath and put him to bed. Tony made Darcy sit down while he did the cleanup. He remembered vividly how hard her pregnancy with Jamie had been and wanted her off her feet. Steve came in just as he was wiping off the countertops.

They all sat down at the table, Steve and Darcy on one side, and Tony on the other. He couldn't remember ever feeling so alone.

Darcy broke the silence. "What's going on, Tony?"  
"I don't know. When I got done working on the upgrades to the suit, I went looking for everyone. No one was in the penthouse so I came down to see if it was a group dinner night and I forgot. I found Jamie and he called me Uncle Tony instead of Daddy."

Darcy looked confused. "Why would he call you Daddy?"

"Because he's ours! We've been together for years! We have two children, Maggie and Jamie. Why am I the only one who remembers?" Tony jumped up and started pacing.

"We're all three in a relationship together? That seems pretty far-fetched to me, Tony," Steve said.

"Tony, did you hit your head?"

"Something is wrong! Why are you so calm?"

They watched him pace. "We're not calm," Darcy said. "We're worried about you. You're our friend and the things you're saying are very strange."  
"Maybe we should go see the doctors."

"I don't need a doctor! I need to find our daughter and figure out why her other parents don't remember that she exists!"

He stopped to see Steve had put his arm around Darcy, who had started to cry. "I'm ok. It's the fucking hormones. Take him to the doctor and I'll stay here with Jamie."

"I don't need to see a doctor!" Tony all but shouted, still mindful of the sleeping child. "You're not listening to me!"

"We're listening Tony, but you aren't making sense!"

"Ok, that's fine. Sorry for bothering you." He ran out, managing to make it to the elevator before Steve could stop him. "JARVIS, don't let anyone else up. Where is Maggie?"  
"Sir, Captain Rogers is very insistent on being let in. And there is no Maggie on the premises."

Tony went through the penthouse room by room. Maggie and Jamie's rooms looked like the generic guest rooms they used to be. The room that had been his, Steve's, and Darcy's for so long held only his clothes and toiletries. Darcy's spare glasses were no longer on the nightstand. Steve's sketchbooks weren't on the shelves. No toys or legos littered the living room floor. There was no evidence that children had ever been here. He went to his workshop and headed straight to the corner that Maggie used. This morning it had been covered in half finished projects and spare parts and now it sat empty.

He sat on the floor in her empty area and tried to process what was going on. Had he imagined all of it? It had seemed so real. He couldn't understand how he could have made it all up. The feel of Darcy and Steve curled around him in bed. The smell of Darcy's hair, the taste of Steve's skin. The feeling of the unconditional love he'd felt the first time he'd held Maggie and how perfectly she had fit in his arms. The look of excitement on her face when she had something new to show him. The sound of Jamie's soft footsteps when he would try to sneak into his parents' bed in the middle of the night. The smile on Rhodey's face when he'd first held Maggie and said, "Trust the great Tony Stark to need two people to settle down."

Had he gone crazy? Was this like Afghanistan, when he had been SO SURE that he had heard Pepper calling him? Or smelled her perfume, like she had just walked out of the room? NO. This was _different_. This was imagining a whole life, a whole person, into being.

He spent the next hour or so watching recordings of things he couldn't remember, trying to make sense of it all. Steve and Darcy's wedding. Apparently he'd been the best man. Jamie's first birthday party. It was all there in front of him and yet still made absolutely no sense.

Periodically JARVIS would let him know that Steve was still trying to get a hold of him, but he ignored him.

Finally, he got up and went to the bar. He couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten blackout drunk and now seemed like the perfect time to remedy that.

* * *

Tony woke up to a pounding headache and the quiet murmur of voices. He kept his eyes shut and tried to focus on what was going on around him. After a few moments, he realized he was hearing Steve and Darcy. He tried opening his eyes, but even the dim lighting hurt his already pounding head. He reached up and put his hand over his eyes, reopening them a tiny bit. They widened when he saw the ring on his finger. He almost cried with relief.

Steve and Darcy stopped talking and Darcy whispered, "You're awake!" while pushing a button on the wall near his bed and going over to dim the lights.

Steve took the hand not covering his face. "How do you feel?"  
His voice sounded croaky when he asked, "What happened?"

Darcy brought him a glass of water with a straw, which he sipped gratefully.

Steve explained, "There was an explosion while you were helping Bruce in his lab. You were knocked out."  
"That explains the headache."

"That was yesterday," Darcy said, sitting on the bed and taking his other hand. "We've been pretty worried."

He closed his eyes briefly, gathering the courage to ask the most important question. "Where…where are Maggie and Jamie?"  
It was Steve who answered. "Tony, it's the middle of the night. Jane and Thor took them up to bed. Maggie put up a fight but the doctors were barely letting us stay with you."

He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and said, "Ok. Ok," just as the doctor came in.

He shooed Steve and Darcy off the bed and did a quick exam. When he was done and was explaining how he wanted to keep Tony for another 24 hours at least for observation, Tony said, "No. I'm going home right now."

The doctor tried to argue and Tony started trying to pull out his IVs. Darcy rushed over and stopped him. "Get a nurse," she said to the doctor, in her best Coulson voice. "Or take them out yourself. You did all the scary tests on his brain, it was fine. We can monitor him at home."

The doctor looked between the three of them and then sighed. "Fine. But you'll have to monitor him closely."

Darcy waved her hand. "Send the instructions to JARVIS and get him ready to go."

In no time he had been dressed in his own pajamas and taken up to their floor. He'd refused a wheelchair, so Darcy and Steve had propped him up in the elevator and helped him to their room. He made them stop so he could peek in on both children before he would agree to get into bed.

Darcy had gone out to let Jane and Thor know they could head back to their own place and Steve had laid down next to him on the big bed. He had Steve's hand in his and was playing with his ring.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked. "You've been acting strange since you woke up."  
Darcy came in and curled up on his other side. With their warmth bracketing him, he told them about his coma dream, and how it had felt so real. He finished with, "I thought I had imagined all of this. That it was too good to be true."  
Steve squeezed his hands and Darcy trapped his leg in between hers, saying, "You're stuck with us."

Steve added in, "What an awful dream."

Tony laughed, "It certainly wasn't the best time I've ever had."

Darcy sat up. "This isn't your way of saying we should have another baby, is it? Because I thought we were good with two."

"Why would you say that?"  
"I was pregnant in your dream."

"That was not the moral of the story, Darce."

She laid back down on his shoulder, trying not to jostle him too much. "Thank God. I can barely keep up with Jamie and Maggie as it is."

He was running the strands of Darcy's hair through the fingers of one hand, the other linked with theirs over his stomach.

"You two didn't need me," Tony whispered.

Darcy started peppering the side of his face with little kisses. "Oh, Tony. We wouldn't work without you. You're the glue that holds us together. The tequila in our margarita! The roast beast in our Christmas feast!"

They both looked at her funny.

"Sorry. The kids have been watching the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for the last few days."

"It's June."  
"So?"

"What our lovely Darcy is so eloquently saying is that we need you. And don't forget it."

"Or else!"

Tony was amused. "Or else what?"  
"Spankings," she said firmly. "And not the fun kind. Besides, I think we're pretty perfect. In our own, screwed up way."

Steve brought their joined fingers to his lips. "I agree."

Tony closed his eyes, content that when he woke up this time, everything would be the way it should be.

* * *

A/N: Ok, I think this is really the end of this series. Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, or favorited this series.


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